It seems like the only time I do interesting makeup these days is for dance performances, so hopefully there will be more opportunities soon... but in the meantime, last night was my dance society's spring hafla - or, time to break out the heavy-duty goods!

It's a little more matte than last time around, and a bit paler too. As a base, I used MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NW10 (which I only recently discovered, but it's the perfect pale shade for me and I love it!) and Pro-Longwear Concealer in NW15. I used the brown powder from my new Sleek contouring palette (which I got in Light but probably should have looked for Fair) to contour my cheeks, and then Kat Von D blush in Truth for color, with Boots No7 pressed powder in Fair to finish.

The eyes, as always, were the centerpiece, and as usual, I turned to Urban Decay for lots of color and shimmer. Apart from my trusty Nars primer, I used the Naked 1 palette for the whole look: Sin as a base, then Half Baked in the middle of the lid, Smog on the outer third, and a bit of Darkhorse in the crease. Then I used Virgin as a highlight, along the browbone and inner corner, and to blend. I filled my brows in with Hustle (really! the shimmer isn't that noticeable, and I figured it would be fine for stage makeup anyway!) and smudged under my lower lashline with Smog. I used Bobbi Brown long-wear eyeliner in Mahogany to tightline my upper and lower waterlines, and then added a layer of the late, lamented UD 24/7 pencil in Honey (best gold EVER) under my lower lashline. The whole thing was finished off with a pair of UD Urban Lash in Black Velvet, which is a really lush (but sort of natural-ish?) combination of criss-crossed hairs and bits of black feather.

 
The lashes were a bit of a pain to take off - the feathers got wet and I had to try and reposition them correctly - but they looked amaaaazing, as you can see. (They were also a bit stiff as it was the first time I'd worn them, but hopefully they'll soften up with further wear.)

I finished the whole thing off with a coat of Tom Ford lip color in Coco Ravish. Amazingly, this face survived a mile-and-a-half walk into town, a performance, and lots of social dancing after, over the course of about six hours, with nary a bit of oil peeking through or even a hint of smudging. (It did take about an hour to apply and ten minutes to remove, though...)

Last night was my first-ever bellydance performance - and the first time I'd performed any sort of dance onstage since I was 17 (and back then it was flamenco!). It went pretty well, if I do say so myself, but - unsurprisingly - my favorite part was doing my makeup beforehand. (I also did makeup for a few other dancers who had clearly never done stage makeup before in their lives - another favorite thing about performing!)

(This picture makes it look waaaayyyy more subtle than it actually was, FYI. Poor lighting!)

For my base this time, I went with Lancome Teint Ultra 24h foundation in 005 and MAC Pro Longwear concealer in NW15. Blush is Bobbi Brown Desert Rose, and cheekbones are highlighted with Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Rose Gold. It's all topped off with Boots No7 translucent loose powder.

Next: the eyes! The most important part of any performance makeup, if you ask me! As is my usual these days, I broke out the false lashes - a new pair this time, Urban Decay Urban Lash in Sly. These are shockingly natural looking for how huge they are, and they were SUPER easy to apply - or maybe I'm just getting better? I also didn't have to trim them very much - just one little cluster of lashes off the inner corner.

I also dug into my Naked palettes to do the eye look: NARS primer to start, as always, and then a good coat of Snakebite on the outer half of each lid, up to just above the crease. Then Smog in the middle of each lid, and Half-Baked on the inner half, blending the three together. I added a bit of Blackout on the outer corners and blended, and then used Blunt to blend the top edges together, and Walk of Shame to blend out the edges, under my browbone, and at the outer corners (basically to cover up messy edges!). The lower lashline is Half-Baked on the inner half and Snakebite on the outer half. I used Bobbi Brown gel liners to line: Black Ink on the upper lashline (to help hide the fake lashes!) and upper waterline, and Chocolate Shimmer Ink on the lower waterline.

On my brows, I used Chanel's pencil eyeliner (the "automatic" one) to draw my brows in a slightly larger and pointier shape, and fill them in a bit. I followed that up with Bobbi Brown matte shadow in Mahogany, and then Bobbi Brown Brow Shaping Gel in Mahogany to set everything. 

On my lips - Bobbi Brown Creamy Matte lipcolor in Latte. (Lips were really not the focal point of this look, eh?)

Added in my awesome/huge earrings:

And voila: a look fit for dancing the night away!

It took me about 15 minutes (and an oil cleanser) to get this all off at the end of the night, but it was totally worth it - and I can't wait to do it again! But I'm definitely giving my skin a break today - it needs to breathe! Thanks for reading!

You thought I was going to say "Gray", didn't you? (Ha, no, you know me better than that. Me and shades of gray just do not mix, cosmetically speaking.)

So I actually took some time last Sunday morning to do a full, creative face! (GASP, I know!) The basics are the same as always, but I've gone with Bobbi Brown Creamy Matte Lip Color in Latte on the lips, and an array of golden-green-brown shades on my eyes.

Shades used (all are Urban Decay's new shadow formula): Blunt (bright gold - all over lid), Bender (green - outer half of lid), Snakebite (bronzy brown - crease), and Walk of Shame (palest beige - browbone). I used MAC Eye Kohl in Teddy dipped in Bobbi Brown gel liner in Ivy Shimmer Ink to line my lower waterlines.

On the lips, as I said, I used Bobbi Brown's new Creamy Matte lipcolor formula - this is over top of Fresh Sugar lip treatment, so it's a bit more glossy than usual; it does dry down to a very very matte finish and I prefer it that way. This shade (Latte) is a warm medium slightly-pink brown, and it's an excellent neutral.

A swatch of Latte below, and my very favorite earrings which I used to complete the whole look:

Final look, with glasses: 

Hopefully I'll be able to do some sort of non-neutral look soon - I have a dance performance coming up which might be a good opportunity to go wild and crazy, so we'll see! In the meantime, thanks for reading!

You may remember my first post on false lashes, not so long ago. I've worn that pair (Urban Decay Hoax) several times since then, but always found them very dramatic. Today, I decided to take my new, much more natural-looking pair of Flirt lashes for a spin. They're not full lashes, but more like half-lashes or three-quarter lashes (you can see them here, but I foolishly forgot to take a picture of them before I put them on). 

Unlike with the Hoax set, I didn't have to trim these at all - they're short enough that they should fit comfortably on any eye! And they were much easier to apply, I just sort of stuck them on and they stayed close to the lashline; I didn't have to hold them in place to try and get them to bend properly or anything. 

As you can see, the lashes aren't actually any longer than my natural eyelashes, but they provide a bit more volume and oomph on the outer half of my eyes. And the black strip bit doesn't look too bad, I don't think - I didn't want to layer on the black eyeliner like I did with Hoax, because I was still aiming for natural/everyday. (I did smudge a bit of Urban Decay shadow in Snakebite on the upper lashline, but it's not too heavy.)

The other thing I absolutely LOVED about these lashes? It felt like I wasn't even wearing them! They're super lightweight - one of my main complaints before was that false lashes made me feel like I was doing a little eyelid exercise routine with tiny weights. But I totally forgot I was wearing lashes most of the day! And they stick through everything - I even took a (face-down!) nap for a few hours in my makeup (BAD, I know!) and they were still flawless when I woke up!

(Side note: when I was cropping these pics in iPhoto, I tried out the magic wand button - it says "mejorar" in Spanish, maybe the English is something like "improve"? - and it made me look like some sort of doll. So I had to change back to the original. Ah, well...)

In conclusion - I'm really starting to like playing around with false lashes! I might start wearing these on a regular basis, because they really add definition to my eyes without being too dramatic. And changing one little thing at a time is turning out to be pretty manageable after all!

Er, hello there! Breaking radio silence to bring you guys a turning point in my beauty junkie ways: my first time applying false lashes! I've worn them a few times before, but always had a friend put them on for me - and they were always the wacky hologaphic Halloween style ones, never natural-looking! But since I've been getting into bellydance (over the course of the past year or so - I might start adding that to my blog if anyone's interested?), the problem of performance makeup has come up. And one of the most important elements: the false lash. 

So here I am, determined to figure these things out well before I have to put them on in a hurry backstage while wearing five pounds of beads and coins. I picked up a pair of Urban Decay Urban Lash in Hoax, which are one of the most natural-looking pairs in their range.

See? Relatively un-intimidating, even for scaredy-cats like me!

Then I headed straight for Sophia's very handy post on "Tips and Tricks for Wearing False Lashes", because she's pretty much the goddess of false lashes, and who better to learn from than the expert? 

Then I trimmed my lashes down to a reasonable size, like so:

Then I very carefully applied them... and was mostly successful! The right lash ended up a little bit crooked, but with the aid of eyeliner, black shadow, and a liner brush, I was able to disguise the majority of the wonkiness!

It actually doesn't look TOO jarring with my relatively natural makeup today, either!

Other products harmed in this experiment: Laura Mercier Oil-Free Tinted Moisturizer in Porcelain; Bobbi Brown powder blush in Nude Peach (love!); MAC Blot Powder (pressed) in Light; Bobbi Brown Natural Brow Shaper in Rich Brown; Estee Lauder Pure Color eyeshadow duo in Vanilla Pods; Bobbi Brown matte eyeshadow in Caviar (black) as liner; Stila Smudge Stick liner in Stingray (upper lashline); MAC Eye Kohl in Teddy (lower waterline/lashline); and Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment in Plum. 

So, all in all, not too traumatic an experience. I'll give it another go soon, I think. Any tips/tricks/false-lash horror stories you fancy sharing?

Another tragically short post - I'm piggybacking the neighbor's wi-fi, because a huge oak tree fell in our front yard late Sunday night and took out our telephone and internet lines! It's been more than three days without internet and I'm going crazy! We went to dinner at a family friend's house, and I had about ten minutes after my shower to do something with my face, so I decided to keep it super simple! The only really exciting part of this look is the blue eyeliner (which is one of the things I exchanged for when I returned my face & lip primer potions from UD). The lighting is slightly wonky as usual, although I really have no idea how I managed to get two *completely* different types of lighting from one photo session in the same place at the same time. (Seriously, there's like three photos with *cool* tones despite *warm* lighting. Le sigh.)

Base: Bobbi Brown Vitamin-Enriched Face Base; Bobbi Brown Hydrating Eye Cream; MAC Oil-Control Lotion (t-zone only)

Face: Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer in Porcelain (under eyes only); Bare Minerals Mineral Veil (all over); Bare Minerals foundation in Fair (all over and as concealer); Mineral Veil again (as finishing powder)

Brows: Bobbi Brown matte shadow in Mahogany

Lids: Too Faced Shadow Insurance; Bobbi Brown Shimmer Wash shadows in Nude (all over lid) and Woodrose (lightly at the crease)

Liner: Urban Decay Ink for Eyes in Binge (blue), applied with a MAC 209 brush; I extended the line into the inner corners of the eye, and drew a line beyond the outer ends of my eyes as well

Lashes: MAC Plushlash mascara (black)

Cheeks: BE blush in Lovely

Lips: Laura Mercier sheer lipstick in Bare Lips; Urban Decay Ultraglide gloss in Video

I quite liked this look, actually, and it held up very well throughout the evening (I'm still wearing it as I type, some 8 hours later). It's been kind of nice being internet-less for a while, because I am super way more productive that way (fewer distractions!) but I've missed Sugar and a few other awesome sites, so here's hoping the Verizon people show up tomorrow as promised and fix my bloody internet already! (Is it weird that I haven't missed the phone at all??) In the meantime, thanks for reading, and hopefully I'll be back soon!

I was inspired by this look on the Sephora site - classic and classy smokey eyes, perfect for an evening out or a holiday party. And since I already have most of the products used, I thought - "Why not?"

The original look:

My take:

I used almost exactly the same eye products as in the UD face chart/instructions, with a couple of substitutions.

Face: Bare Escentuals Mineral Veil and SPF15 Foundation in Fair

Cheeks: BareMinerals blush in Poppy (upper cheekbones), Lovely (lower cheekbones), and Kiss (apples of cheeks)

Brows: Urban Decay Brow Box in Brown Sugar, darker shade

Lids: UD Primer Potion, UD 24/7 liner pencil in Zero, MAC eyeshadow in Carbon (matte black, used in place of UD Perversion), UD shadow in Twice Baked (golden dark brown with subtle gold sparkle), and UD shadow in Foxy (matte ivory, in place of UD ABC Gum, which is matte peach)

Lashes: one coat of Bourjois "Yes to volume, no to clumps!" mascara in Noir Insoumis (black), combed through with the Sephora Professionel lash comb (metal teeth are a lot more effective than plastic ones...), then followed with several coats of Global Goddess Exotic Eyes mascara in Blackest Black, and another run-through with the comb

Lips: Sephora Perfection Lip Primer pencil (clear); MAC lipstick in Modesty (cremesheen), topped with a combination of MAC lipglasses in Enchantress and Soft & Slow

One thing I discovered was that UD Zero just doesn't cut it for me anymore - after several months of using MAC Kohl Power in Feline, I expect a true rich black from my eyeliner, and Urban Decay seems so waxy and grayish in comparison. :-( Thankfully, I have several backups of Feline.

Also, I discovered that I'm still not all that good at taking pictures of myself. And the angles and lighting still stink. Sorry. :-/

It was actually kind of fun to follow makeup instructions (for once!) and to figure out how best to modify them for myself (like, ix-nay on the bronzer, and I tried the suggested lip combo but it was WAY too pink, so I had to fix that too...), rather than making it up as I go along.

That said, I've acquired some goodies that I know you'll want to drool over, so I'll be sharing them, as well as some new looks (of my own design), over the next little while... I've got a whole backlog of posts that I need to get around to finalizing, because I am a lazy bum. (Sorry.) Oooh, and while we're on the topic of Urban Decay (because we are, sort of), I am über-excited for the Spring 2009 collections - a champagne version of Primer Potion based on Sin eyeshadow, and four new 24/7 eye pencils, including a true bright green (Graffiti), which I have been searching for desperately. (Underground will also be mine.)

Anyway... thanks for reading, and I hope you're having a great holiday season!